As she walks with Chaz through the Bronx, Honey bemoans the fact that she will lose the space for her Centah if she can't come up with more money. Honey devises a plan to hold a benefit dance concert to raise the money, and Chaz leads her to an abandoned church that would be a perfect venue for this event.
Honey gathers her young dancers in the abandoned church, announcing her idea for the dance benefit. In a montage, Honey and her acolytes hang flyers all over town; meanwhile, kids rehearse their dance moves in preparation for the upcoming show. A banner reading "DANCE BENEFIT" is unfurled in front of the building.
Afterwards, Honey visits Benny in prison and encourages him to hang out with her when he is released the following day. Benny maligns Honey's lack of job, money, or connections, to which Honey responds by pointing out that none of his thug friends have visited him since he went to jail. |
As if trying to kick-start her good luck, Honey begins this clip by restating her dramatic conflict out loud and waiting for the solution to present itself. To her delight, not only does she come up with the brilliant idea for a dance benefit to raise the money, but Chaz instantly secures her an ideal venue with a single phone call. After facing several minor setbacks in the last few clips, Honey is surely relieved to see that her charmed existence is kicking back in, as good fortune resumes falling into her lap for no reason.
This turn of events is naturally tied to Honey's positive attitude, and her new plan fits nicely within her worldview: she frames this problem as one of awareness, reasoning that if people in the ghetto only knew these kids wanted to dance, they would certainly be willing to throw money at them so the neighborhood kids can learn to love themselves instead of learning to love booze and crank. While this sounds perfectly logical at first, Honey's plan is flawed in its cheerful denial of the following facts, both of which Honey has encountered firsthand in this film:
- People in the ghetto don't have a lot of money to donate to anyone, let alone wildly successful choreographers who earn $9,000+ for one day of work
- Some parents, like Benny and Raymond's, simply don't care what their children get up to, and apparently hate positive role models like Honey thinking they know what's best for their children
Honey's recent surge in positive energy is so powerful, in fact, that she is able to win over the neighborhood kids despite the lightning speed with which they disowned her. Having been innocently led to the brink of glory before Honey's abstinence ruined all their futures, these kids have still enough faith to reunite and listen to Honey convince them once again to utilize their talents for her benefit. In fact, most of the kids here look completely different than the ones we saw before; this seems to suggest just how long it has taken them to heal after Honey's betrayal.
Through the healing powers of montage, however, news of Honey's goodwill event spreads throughout the Bronx. Among those eager to support Honey in her endeavor, the director of something called the "Bronx Business Association," who writes a check while Honey and her friends crowd him with stony faces; while this appears to be a victory of extortion for Honey and her gang, the "Bronx Business Association" will get the last laugh when Honey tries to cash their check, as a Google search for them yields exactly zero results .
It is also during this montage that Gina enters the bank and hands a flyer to Honey's loan officer. Not only does this suggest that Honey was so specific while recounting her experience at the bank that Gina knew exactly who to browbeat with a flyer, it seems awfully bold to solicit cash from someone who has done enough unreasonable favors for Honey. On the other hand, it may be the least the loan officer can do after defrauding Honey of the first $8,500.
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